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墨書 Inktalez
As I grew older and faced a scarcity of resources, I had no choice but to join the ranks of those who "earned their keep." In addition to engaging in labor that earned work points, such as herding cattle and cutting grass, I began to follow the adults around, picking up various edible items.
It seemed that to coordinate with everyone's efforts, the school would always take a few days off during the harvest season, euphemistically called "farming break." This break was not only given during the harvesting of early and late rice but also during the wheat and sorghum harvests. Even when it came to harvesting peanuts and soybeans—rare economic crops—there would be a day or two off.
Collecting rice ears was the primary task and yielded the greatest results. As soon as the adults used sickles to cut down the rice, regardless of whether the fields were dry or wet, children would rush in barefoot, eagerly competing to gather the rice ears that had fallen outside the piles. Once the threshing machine started up, even more children would join in; it was common to find entire bundles of rice ears that had been overlooked during threshing. The piles of straw cleared from the grain storage barrels were especially popular among us, as they often contained plenty of grains or rice ears—truly a treasure trove.
If the adults in a household happen to be assigned to clean the grain storage bins of the threshing machine, the children often have priority over the piles of straw that are cleared out, and the adults intentionally leave the piles not entirely clean. Some children even take a large basket and collect all the cleared straw to take home, where they carefully sift through it to obtain a considerable bounty.
However, in our family, only my mother works in the production team, and she rarely gets the chance to clean the grain bins. As a result, my siblings and I find it difficult to secure the coveted straw piles. There was only one occasion when my second aunt in the lower courtyard was assigned this task. Since her children were still young, she specifically pointed out the straw pile to me, allowing me to guard a treasure trove for an entire afternoon.
Even without any unspoken rules favoring us, after a season of rice harvesting, my siblings and I managed to gather an extra thirty to fifty pounds of grain just by picking up rice ears. In contrast, at my second uncle's house, where there were more laborers available, my second uncle, who had some trouble with his legs, often took on the task of cleaning the grain bins. His cousin, who is only a few months older than me, along with his sister, managed to collect over a hundred pounds of grain each season.
Picking peanuts is one of the most fulfilling activities. After the children find them, most immediately start to shell them and pop the nuts into their eager mouths. To us, peanuts are a luxury food, something we rarely get to enjoy more than a few times a year. It is only during the peanut harvesting season that we can gather a few from the fields.
Peanuts grow underground, and when the adults dig them up with a hoe, they pull out the entire plant to hand over to the production team for processing. Some peanuts inevitably remain in the soil, and the children eagerly follow behind the hoe, searching again and again. Once they spot a target, they quickly grab it, shell it open, and swallow it down with the earthy and grassy flavors mingling together—so delicious!
After the harvest is complete, there are still two more opportunities to pick peanuts:
After the next rain, some peanuts will sprout in the dug Peanut field. At that time, the children will carry a small basket and a small hoe, and as soon as the rain stops, they will rush to the Peanut field that was dug a few days ago, using the hoe or their small hands to dig through the wet soil and pick the smiling peanuts one by one.
While the peanuts are being picked, the adults will pull the peanuts off the stems and put them into the Production team's basket. The peanuts with stems and roots are then left on the side, and there are always some leftovers, especially the half-filled peanuts, which the Production team generally does not want. When eaten raw, they are even sweeter than the full peanuts and are the favorite of the children.
Just like picking rice ears, the adults also take care of their own children while picking peanuts. Some people even throw the entire peanut plant with the unharvested fruits, including the stems and leaves, to the children. The three of us siblings rarely received such care and had to rely entirely on ourselves. While envying others, we also developed quick and skillful picking techniques. However, while I was improving my speed, I once mistook the accompanying herb, Banxia, for a peanut and put it directly into my mouth, causing my tongue to go numb for a long time.
Picking soybeans is the most time-consuming task, as they must be picked one by one, and they are so small. Since there are not too many soybeans planted, there is no specialized threshing machine. They can only be dried in the sun first, and then crushed with a special stick to make the beans pop out of the pods. At this time, some of them will inevitably pop out of the drying area, and it is these beans outside the area that we need to pick. Some are hidden in the soil cracks, some are mixed in the grass roots, and some are sitting boldly on the cement ground at the edge of the field. We just need to bring a small enamel cup, and throw a bean into it whenever we pick one up, listening to the crisp sound, as if smelling the strong fragrance of popping beans, stimulating us to persist and pick up the beans one by one. These are the children's snacks for the winter.
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